Bessie+Simons

At about 4:00 p.m. on March 19, 1907, homemaker Bessie F. Simmons, age 30, died at her Chicago home from infection caused by a criminal abortion perpetrated on February 22 at the office of Dr. Charles D. Hughes, who was arrested in the death.

Bessie's abortion was typical in that it was [|performed by a physician].

Note, please, that with general public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see[|Abortion Deaths 1900-1909]. For more on pre-legalization abortion, see [|The Bad Old Days of Abortion]



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